I had myturbos replaced a few months ago on my 2008 135i so they are pretty new......and with the colder weather, I too have recently noticed what i consider to be an above average amount of smoke when the car is at idle.

However, as already suggested....the smoke has absolutely no odour to it at all and subsides once you rev the engine.

Looks like condensation to me but there is so much of it.....I can only assume that the stock pre-catalytics are doing a really good job of converting the exhaust gases to H2O.

It's almost certainly condensation. If it was oily, you'd know about it and would probably be able to smell some form of burning. Have you tried putting your hand over one of the exhaust pipes and seeing if you have oily deposits? I don't think you will somehow...

As long as the smoke blows clear when the engine is under load, and there's no smell, you're good to go with nothing to worry about

I'll look forward to seeing the dyno graph,you thinking of going to Charlie's?

Turbos will be back on Monday, so car will be ready to move by Wednesday. Straight down to DMS for what's going to be a lengthy remapping process on the dyno there. Might pay a visit to Charlie in a couple of weeks for a few verification runs and things once the car has settled and adapted.

Turbos will be back on Monday, so car will be ready to move by Wednesday. Straight down to DMS for what's going to be a lengthy remapping process on the dyno there. Might pay a visit to Charlie in a couple of weeks for a few verification runs and things once the car has settled and adapted.

That's a quick turnaround, impressive stuff.

I did'nt know they had a dyno at DMS, but it's been a few years since I've been.

It's almost certainly condensation. If it was oily, you'd know about it and would probably be able to smell some form of burning. Have you tried putting your hand over one of the exhaust pipes and seeing if you have oily deposits? I don't think you will somehow...

Yes....I have stood in the middle of the cloud of smoke and sniffed away....absolutely no odour and the smoke is very clean and light - not blue and heavy like oily smoke. It condenses on your hand into moisture.

It's most definitely water vapour. There just seems to be a lot of it!

If your turbos don't work out i have a set of custom upgraded turbos sitting brand new in the box ready to install if you are interested, they were custom built by Compturbo here in CA... I am returning my 335 so i don't have a car to install them into...

from the picture found on this forum it seems the housings are the same as OEM

indeed ball bearing would be better for the TD upgrade?!

It would be great to use a ball bearing housing, but unfortunately there's no option to fit a ball bearing cartridge into a TD03, let alone one that fits the size of shaft used in there (small) in comparison to the Garrett ball bearing shafts. So the only feasible options brings us back round full circle to the Garrett CHRA with the hefty price tag!

The other concern is that, without looking at an ASR or Racing Dynamics turbo which both use a Garrett CHRA, the guys at Turbo Dynamics are curious as to whether oil and water lines have been fitted because the work involved to do so is apparently immense and extremely costly. Visually it appears that those turbos are using old T25 bearing housings that don't run any water cooling. If there's no water cooling, those bearings will cook themselves pretty quickly!

This is just purely conjecture based on a brief visual analysis of a picture. It could be that ASR have fitted water and oil lines, in which case the concern about cooling is negated.

On a side note, with regards to the wastegates on the BMW turbos, the arm and valve assembly are specific to these turbos so what has been done is the new bushes have been machined slightly undersized to accommodate the arm and valve that have been modified to fit.

Just received an email from Turbo Dynamics to say that the turbos have now been balanced, assembled, and are being shipped back to me today for delivery Monday

By Wednesday morning the turbos will be on the car and I'll be heading down to DMS for a mammoth remapping session. If I have time, I'll also go down to Turbo Dynamics who aren't a million miles away from DMS to see them in person and let them try the car.

im glad you're getting the turbo upgrade, but sad you're across the pond lol. by the end of the year I plan to have ASR's turbo upgrade on my car. I would have liked to compare the two, not only racing but street drivability and partial throttle applications.

I guess it was not meant to be but you should have yours first so enjoy and let us know if there are any quirks.

Great info Tone, I think we all begin to understand better everything now.

Indeed if the same wastegate linkage has to be reused it has to be machined to a smaller size... so the bushing has to be smaller too. Hope they can treat the surface of the wastegate rod so that new usure won't appear.

Do you have other pictures of inside of the turbo? compressor well at exit side, turbine well etc...

It would be great to use a ball bearing housing, but unfortunately there's no option to fit a ball bearing cartridge into a TD03, let alone one that fits the size of shaft used in there (small) in comparison to the Garrett ball bearing shafts. So the only feasible options brings us back round full circle to the Garrett CHRA with the hefty price tag!

The other concern is that, without looking at an ASR or Racing Dynamics turbo which both use a Garrett CHRA, the guys at Turbo Dynamics are curious as to whether oil and water lines have been fitted because the work involved to do so is apparently immense and extremely costly. Visually it appears that those turbos are using old T25 bearing housings that don't run any water cooling. If there's no water cooling, those bearings will cook themselves pretty quickly!

This is just purely conjecture based on a brief visual analysis of a picture. It could be that ASR have fitted water and oil lines, in which case the concern about cooling is negated.

On a side note, with regards to the wastegates on the BMW turbos, the arm and valve assembly are specific to these turbos so what has been done is the new bushes have been machined slightly undersized to accommodate the arm and valve that have been modified to fit.

Looking at the second image - the wastegate is that flap or valve that opens (via the actuator arm/rod through the new bushing) and allows exhaust gas to go into the exhaust system and essentially "bypass" the exhaust side impeller (turbine?), correct?